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A daughter has slammed her ‘selfish’ parents for giving birth to her later in life, claiming that she “hated having an older dad”.

Eugenie Levine, whose father was 50 when she was born and developed early onset dementia, said her dad was often mistaken as her grandfather.

Ms Levine, who is now 29, told SBS Insight, says she suffered mental health issues as a result of the age difference, citing she was just 10 by the time her dad’s dementia took hold.

“I hated having an older dad. Hated it,” she said.

“I didn’t think of it as dementia. I hated people thinking he was my granddad.

“I hated that he wasn’t like anybody else. He was different to all my other friends at school. I was constantly embarrassed. He was getting mentally more disconnected.”

When she was a teenager Ms Levine made the decision to have children early in a bid to be a fun and active younger mother.

She gave birth to her first child at 24.

Mary Coustas, who became a mother via IVF at 49, also told Insight, “I hope that I am one of these ageing people that ages well into their late 80s and can enjoy witnessing her life. But having lost a parent, the wishing that they were around never goes away but the benefits of them don’t either.”

A 62 year old Tasmanian woman became Australia’s oldest new mother by giving birth to a baby girl after becoming pregnant with the help of IVF. It’s her first child and her partner is 78 years old. The AMA president Dr Michael Gannon labelled the decision as “madness”, “selfish” and “wrong”.

The story comes after news last year of a 61-year-old woman who has become a mum for the first time after falling pregnant naturally. Maria Rosaria Veneruso delivered a healthy baby boy called Elia Francesco, weighing in at 7lbs 7oz.

The Italian woman said she and her husband Enzo were completely delighted with their new arrival.

Celebrity dads who became new dads in their later years include: Mel Gibson at 60, Kelsey Grammer at 61, Alec Baldwin, at 58, Rob Schneider at 52 and reportedly Mick Jagger at 73.

The oldest person to ever give birth is reportedly, 70-year-old Daljinder Kaur from India who had a baby with her 79-year-old husband Mohinder Singh Gill through IVF (In Vitro Fertilisation) treatment.

While the oldest father was reportedly Les Colley (1898 – 1998, Australia), who had his ninth child a son named Oswald to his third wife at the age of 92 years 10 months.

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  • WOW….selfish….yes indeed…not the parents but her. She needs a swift kick up the butt. Sadly her parents deserved a more loving and caring daughter.

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  • It sometimes depends on the circumstances that children are so far apart in age gap.
    One of them may have been sick and told there definitely would not be more siblings for the older children. I personally who a couple who were told that and had another baby 8 years later.

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  • If you fall pregnant naturally at an older age then it was meant to be. The parents who I think are selfish are the ones who have IVF and are over 45 because they didn’t want children earlier because it would have interfered with their lifestyle.

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  • Interesting to read the different opinions and feelings.

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  • Unless you’ve been in her situation you can’t comment. I was adopted and my parents were 50/51 when I was born. They looked and acted more like grandparents. Once you start secondary school you can’t help but feel self conscious about everything including the age and look of your parents.
    My father died when i was in my early 20s and my mother died when i was 40 – a long time for me to live without parents.
    My father didn’t walk me down the aisle at my wedding and my mother had senime dimentia when my son was born.
    And my child now has no maternal grandparents.
    People don’t want to be told they’re selfish for having children late in life but genetically there’s good reasons why you’re supposed to have children at a young age.
    And having large age gaps between children is also very selfish.
    You want to make your life easy but give no thought about the relationship your children will have when they grow up. You’ll be long gone and your children will act like strangers because you’ve left 5 or more years age difference.
    Seen and experienced it.
    Sorry but selfish, thoughtless parents.

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  • I would think 50 is a reasonable cut-off to date for parenting however, life does not always turn out how we want it to. I think this is an unusual circumstance with this woman’s Dad suffering dementia. I feel a little for her, but would have hoped she grew up in a loving home where here parents really wanted and loved her.

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  • First thing I thought when reading the headline for this was: ungrateful! I get that it would have been embarrassing to have a dad with dementia, but no person could ever predict that they would get dementia at the age of 50. Another point to note is that maybe her parents weren’t expecting to have her at a late age. I have heard of plenty of people who thought they were beyond the child bearing age suddenly finding themselves pregnant.
    Yes, it is better to have younger parents, but note to this young lady if her parents did not have her when they did, she wouldn’t exist at all!

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  • Sad for her parents that she feels this way. She should be grateful to have parents who love her and wanted her.

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  • It is disappointing she feels this way. I agree she should be grateful she had a father.

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  • Would have been hard for her with dad having dementia. She obviously didn’t have the maturity to cope with it, but what kid in their immaturity has’n’t found fault with parents at some point over something???!! I think she brings home the point that if you do have kids when you’re older – a lot, lot older than normal and especially when this isn’t ‘natural’ – then maybe it is more about ‘you’ as a parent and not what is best for the kid… If nothing else most 60 – 70 year olds will have trouble with the demands of routine care and wont be as able to share as much in the child’s play and activities. Might work as grandparents, but the parent usually gets it more ‘full on’ and full time. But some older people will manage it fine.

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  • I think she would have felt different if her dad had not go early dementia, and he was younger looking, fit and healthy. Maybe it is her lack of confidence blaming someone else. Life is a gift no matter who gives it to you. Make the most of living a good life and be grateful.

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  • Older parents have sometimes met in their late 30s or 40s and not necessarily planned to have a baby. I know a guy who lost his first wife to kidney failure and married again a few years later. They didn’t plan to have a baby as his 2nd wife was already in her 40s. In the early 1950s there was no IVF

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  • This woman slams her parents for being selfish for giving birth to her later in life. However by doing so, she’s the one who sounds terribly selfish herself.

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  • I urge to have baby never goes away, you can’t help it, your body craves it. Some of us have to wait longer than others but then they have lived like a younger person can’t, they have experience no one can know until they have been there. Funnily enough I am both a younger mother and an older mother with my first born at 24 and my last at 38, I can tell you i have way more patience now than I had when I was younger

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  • Be grateful that you had a dad honey!

    Reply

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